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Concern in Belgium over Release of Militant Video Showing Central Station | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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This photo taken on March 2, 2017 in Brussels shows the remnants of a car after an explosive disposal robot unit examined the automobile, after police stopped the driver. LAURIE DIEFFEMBACQ / BELGA / AFP


Brussels- Security forces are taking seriously a militant video showing scenes near the central station of Antwerp in northern Belgium, a police spokesman said.

The clip, which surfaced on social media accounts linked to ISIS, is filmed outside the busy Central Station. The footage shows a piece of paper in the hand of the cameraman and a chilling message, written in English, reading: “We are still here.”

Police spokesman Sven Lommaert said Friday: “The police will take the necessary steps to place the Central Station under additional supervision pending the investigation of the Coordination Unit for Threat Analysis.”

“We are obviously examining the camera images of the station.”

Ahmet S Springs, a senior research fellow and Professor of criminology, law and society at George Mason University, said the video seemed to be a real threat.

Springs said a chanting in the video was the same used for propaganda videos for the Istanbul attack in which Adbulkadir Masharipov gunned down 39 people at the Reina nightclub.

Also Friday, Belgian authorities released a man with previous militant links who had been detained a day earlier after two gas cylinders were found in a van he was driving.

Prosecutors said the man had been sentenced to jail in 2016 for participation in the activities of a terrorist group.

The man told investigators the cylinders were for domestic use.

Prosecutors told a news conference before his release that their initial findings supported his explanation.

The van was pulled over on Thursday afternoon after it had run a red light, officials said. The roads near the city’s main Gare du Midi railway station were sealed off.